Growing Up
by rknine
Summary: Zuko's growing up and moving on to college, a college for fine arts. What happens when he meets the mysterious cello player at the school? Will life as he knows it change forever?
1. Chapter 1

**Growing up: 1**

**Zuko**

It wasn't Harvard, which is why my dad was pissed, but it was college, at least I made it that far. Looking out the window seemed to ease the tension between my father and me. I didn't expect him to talk to me but I didn't think it would last _this_ long. I had been accepted to the University of Fine Arts in Gaoling; much to my father's dismay. It's been a dream of mine to go there but my dad; again, disapproved saying my art was nothing but a stupid hobby. I wanted so badly to prove him wrong and get back at him by starting to apply _early_ and quickly got accepted due to my portfolio. My cousin Lu Ten wanted to go to UFA but uncle Iroh sent him off to train for war. Uncle Iroh was a strict man back then. He had been drafted in his early days and war sort of stuck to him. He grew a liking to the job and insisted on making his son follow his foot steps. Sadly cousin died in the war and put uncle into a deep depression. He still blames himself for making Lu Ten join the military. His tea shop seems to be taking his mind off of things so that's why we (as in me and my mom) encouraged him to continue with it.

"Zuko." My hand muffled the 'humff' I gave him. This was the first he's talked to me through the entire plane and car ride.

"Move your hand away from your face when I'm talking to you boy." I huffed, but, did what I was told and moved my hand slouching more in my seat. We passed a sign; UFA Exit 21, 10 miles. We were almost there so he wanted to get something off his chest.

"You know I disapprove of this school." I gave him a hum.

"Words Zuko."

"Yes, father I know you disapprove." He gripped the wheel at my sarcasm.

"Who should be going to-

-Harvard like your sister." We said together. He shot a deadly glare at me but I shook it off and signaled him to pay attention to the rode.

"I know, you've said it a thousand times a-

"And I'll say it a thousands times more." I just looked at him using all the strength in my body not to glare at him.

"I'm sorry I didn't turn out like Azula." Turning my head, I went back to looking out the window, waiting for the car ride to be over. Conversations with my dad are always the ones I dread.

We neared the entrance of the school and sat in a brief traffic before finally getting on campus. We headed straight for the dormitory part of the campus to check in and get all this luggage into my temporary home. We drove around looking for the tables labeled last name _O_. I hope finding a parking spot in the future won't be as hard as it was now because it sure was hell finding this one.

After the hassle of standing in line, checking in, getting my room key, getting all my stuff out of the car, finding my room, you know all that fun stuff, I finally sat on my new bed and sighed. Never thought just moving in my dorm would be this much work, especially since dad didn't do much.

"Looks like this is it." Sometimes I wondered if my dad would ever miss me. He never did pay much attention to me at home so I thought nothing would change, but, looking at his face now…

"You better do well at this school. No son of mine will be second best, you hear me." I sighed and nodded.

"Your car should be on its way." Then he left me here all alone with no good bye. Might as well start unpacking, I always did like my things to be neat and tidy. I was definitely excited about touring the school. I looked at my watch: 2:17. The pamphlet said the next tour would be at 2:30 so I had just enough time to settle in and get going.

"Knock, knock." I turned around to see a kid in the door way wearing a lose green jacket and a simple white t-shirt underneath with jeans and a pair of goggles on his head with two bags at his side. I smiled at my new roommate.

"Roommate?" I asked pointing to him. He nodded.

"They one and only." I walked over to him to help him with his stuff. In that entire five minutes of officially being roommates I learned a lot about him. His name was Teo Chi and he was studying computer graphics. He was an artist like me, only on the computer. His dad is an engineer who sometimes even uses his designs on future projects. I thought that was pretty cool. Father son bonding wasn't something we had in common though.

A loud banging in the hallway stopped our conversation. We headed outside towards all the commotion and saw the tour guides about to start showing us around. Teo and I left our room to join the group that would be touring and let me tell you, the school was beautiful! Our first stop was more performing arts as in dancing and acting and so on. A few of the guys in our tour group got a kick out of the ballerinas stretching. All the girls did was laugh at the 'idiotism' and 'immaturity' of the freshmen. As we moved along we heard a more upbeat hip hop tune blasting from one room. There was a huge window outside of this room, showing the hip hop dancers practicing. The instructor was a petite woman with baggy clothes and short black hair. She could really 'bust a move' on that dance floor though. The poor students just couldn't keep up. Not to far away there was an acting class going on. Seemed like one of the students had just written the play and the actors were just acting out the parts all wrong. The poor kid was loosing his mind because of the poor actors.

The next section of the school was where I would definitely be spending _all _of my time; the artsy part of school. You could see smocks and easels, paint and paintbrushes, models and sculpting as far as thy eye can see. It was just breathtaking how much art was just in one small part of the school. We walked past some upper classmen showing off their work by swaying their arms as their brushes glided across the canvas. A little smug expressions here and there from a few sculptors and finally a snort and a laugh from a few jerks painting, immaturely I might add, a naked women. Go figure.

"Looks like your kind of thing, huh Zuko." My attention snapped to Teo as he bumped my arm. I shrugged.

"Not so much sculpting, but those canvas' look so tempting." He snickered and I smiled.

The next part of the school was more Teo's type with hand drawn 'blueprints' of huge skyscrapers and buildings and streets and roads, it was unbelievable. One girl had a huge desk with a wonderful looking city drawn on the paper in front of her. It must've taken her days to get up to where she was now. The freshman in my group, especially Teo, looked in awe at her city. She looked up and smiled.

"I call it 'Grande Ville'."

"Big city." Teo whispered slightly to himself and me. "French." He added. I nodded. Impressive.

Not to far away (literally on the other side of this wall) was another type of hand drawn art. The walls were covered in pictures of cartoons, superheroes, caricatures you name it. Now here was something very interesting. I myself once thought of choosing to study in this kind of art. In my younger days, like eight, I would draw poor sketches of superheroes that I just made up. When my Uncle bought me my first comic book that's when I, at first, decided to be a comic book artist when I grew up. But as I got older I started to admire the more classic yet modern mature art that I'm into now. We passed one table with a cover to a comic book that had just been printed. One kid went to pick it up when the artist almost chopped his hand off for touching his stuff. If there's something I learned from being an artiest, it's that no artist and I mean no one likes for you to put your grimy little hands on there hard work. And living with Azula for the first eighteen years of my life really had me crazy about that.

The last and final part of the school was just pure awesome. You could hear it from a mile away. If you ever got lost just listen for this sound and you would know you were close to the band rooms. From classical to modern, music was heard everywhere. I've always been a huge fan of music the only problem was that I was a poor musician. I had tried the most basic of all instruments; guitar. It lasted a week and I would just complain, complain, complain about my fingers hurting from holding down the strings. So I put guitar aside and tried another basic, piano. I've heard a lot of beautiful piano pieces and I was so eager to try this one. I gave up the next day. Just because it was hard to play two different patterns with my left and right hand, I thought I would never be able to play. Mom encouraged me to keep trying and practice harder but I was a grumpy little boy who wanted life to be easy and we all know that's never going to happen. That's when I started drawing cartoons and you know the story.

We passed by a few rooms and concert halls with instruments set up but no one was in them.

"What are these empty rooms for?"

"Those rooms are for any musicians who would like to practice on their own time. They've recently been added to this wing of the school actually." These 'practice rooms' were quit content with sound proof walls and a few stools and stands in them.

After our tour, our tour guides left us to fend for our selves and find our own way back to our rooms. Teo and I decided to get some late lunch off campus.

"I knew this school would be awesome but not _this_ awesome!" Teo exclaimed on the way to his car. "This is going to be great!" I had to agree with him 110%. This school _was_ amazing. I mean the amount of talent in one place astounds me. I wonder why my dad never liked this place. Oh I know. He's a no talented stick in the mud who survives on a large income just because of his background and family business and doesn't really need to do anything to survive. Yeah that's it, now I remember. But of course I would never say that to his face.

Teo's car was a nice green jeep with a black top and no doors actually. I sorta liked it. He played the corniest songs ever and danced in his seat while banging along to the beat on the steering wheel.

"You having fun there?" He stopped and looked at me almost forgetting I was in the car. I laughed

"I'm kidding." He shook his head.

"I think we're gonna have a swell friendship Zuko, don't you?"

"I sure do." The moment we started talking I knew we would be best buds. Just his attitude alone makes anyone want to just laugh and have a good time. It's funny, I never really had a best bud before.

**XXX**

We got back from lunch around 4 and just finished unpacking all of our crap onto our sides of the room. This took at least an hour and Teo was already hungry again.

"Let's say we take a break and check out the vending machines in the lobby." I agreed to his devious plan of raiding the lobby for candy and went with him. The lobby was quiet and not many people were around except for the group of freshmen scattering to their rooms like we did. Teo put a dollar in the machine, punched in the numbers and frowned when his candy bar didn't come out. He growled and kicked the machine.

"You know for an amazing school they have not so amazing vending machines."

"Hey if you're going to spend your money might as well spend it on quality tools for the students here. You know like easels, brushes, canvas', instruments, paper, music stands, micro-

"Ok, ok I get it mister obvious." I chuckled leaning against the wall with one hand in my pocket and the other pulling my fedora a little down to shade my face. Teo continued to kick the machine until a little voice screamed-

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Teo immediately stopped and turned around to see where the voice came from. I almost burst out laughing at the little pipsqueak standing in front of us. She had black hair pulled into a bun with a head band and a 'cute' little yellow sundress on. Teo and I looked at each other but couldn't hold it in much longer. We burst out laughing holding our sides and at how much it hurt to laugh. Was the little kid really telling us what to do? This sure made my day.

"Why don't you run along little girl we can handle this candy bar malfunction." Teo said whipping the tears form his eyes.

"Little girl? I'm thirteen!" This just made us laugh even harder. She growled with her hands in fists.

"Don't blame me my parents made me wear this stupid dress!" Again we laughed even harder this time I literally fell to the ground just making steam blow from her ears. I felt my arm being pulled back a not so comfortable angle which shut me up fast. My laughter turned into begging the little girl to stop.

"Do you know who you're talking to kid? The names Toph Bei Fong and as long as you go to this school I practically own you so shut up and stop laughing at me." The name Bei Fong rang in my ears. They were the wealthiest family in Gaoling, they practically owned it. They donated tons of money to the school, since Mr. Gaoling attended here for art. I've seen most of his work which is astounding but I know for a fact that he has a somewhat close business wise relationship with my father. Once when I was ten he and his family came over to discus grown up stuff while I played with his daughter…Toph!

"Toph." I said between grunts. "Toph don't you remember me? We were little and you came over to play with me and Azula, my sister. You guys would play with barbies then rip their hair out. Then you two came in my room and trashed the place." She stopped pulling and thought. I got up and dusted my self off.

"You were only five at the time so you might not-

"Oh I remember all right. I just can't believe it took me this long to remember you."

"I think we should head back to our rooms now." Teo said awkwardly. I waved goodbye to Toph and followed Teo with his candy bar that he some how managed to get out of the vending machine.

**XXX**

After a while of reading, watching TV and sketching things with Teo, he finally crashed and went right to sleep, snoring and all. I on the other hand, couldn't sleep at all. I tried to draw some more to pass the time but t didn't really help. So I put on a jacket and ventured into the halls of the schools, giving my self a personal re-tour. I followed the exact same steps we used during the real tour when I heard that sound; the sound of the band room. Except it wasn't a band playing, but a lone cello playing a sweet but sad sounding yet relaxing tune.

Walking towards the sound, I found my self entering a grand concert hall with just the stage lights on and a girl sitting alone on stage with a cello. The sound that came out of that instrument was just so beautiful and relaxing I could sit there all night and just listen to her play. So that's exactly what I did. I took a seat in the top row so she wouldn't see me and just listened. I closed my eyes drifted off to the sound of her music. I drifted off a little too much and fell out of the chair making a loud thud. She stopped playing got up and just left.

"Wait!" I ran up to the stage, climbed up the stairs and ran to the back where she went off to but I she was know where in sight.

Humm, maybe I won't spend most of my time in the art room.


	2. Chapter 2

**2**

**Katara**

The sound of a loud thud made me get up a leave. I wasn't really fond of having people secretly walk in on my one no one time with my instrument.

"Wait!" I could hear him calling after me, but I ignored him and just left. It was almost running, but not quite, back to my room. It wasn't right for me to be in the concert hall at this time off night. But the feeling of playing in front of an audience is just wonderful to me, even if it _is_ an imaginary audience.

I walked into my room and closed the door silently, my roommate was asleep. After putting my cello away in its case, I changed into my comfortable pjs and got into bed with my laptop. I tied my hair up in a high ponytail and put on my glasses, this is how I get ready for a long time on the internet; I like to prep for that. As soon as the laptop turned on my IM window popped up.

_**Sokka said:**_

_**Couldn't help but notice you were on.**_

I rolled my eyes at my brother's comment. He likes to check up on me since he goes to a different school. He goes to a police academy almost half way around the world. He wants to be a cop just like dad and insists he go to the best school. So every chance he gets, he'll watch his computer until it tells him I've signed on. How annoying.

_You said:_

_How's it going over at the police academy?_

_**Sokka said: **_

_**Surprisingly well, except Suki's at it again.**_

Suki was a friend of ours when we were kids and had a bit of a crush on Sokka. It's funny how small the world really is. After ten years of not seeing her, she ends up going to the same school as Sokka. Suki's always been one step ahead of Sokka which is the funniest thing. It all started when Sokka said Suki couldn't play with him and his friends because she was a girl. That upset her, a lot, ever since she's been better then him in everything.

_You said: _

_I'm telling you Sokka she still has a crush on you._

_**Sokka said: **_

_**Katara we were what six seven? That's a long time I think she would have gotten over me by then.**_

_You said:_

_Oh so you don't like her anymore?_

_**Sokka said:**_

…_**no comment.**_

I laughed. I always seem to do that. Get him to shut up. It's a gift really.

_**Sokka said:**_

_**Ok well I'm going to bed and you should too! It's almost one in the morning over there!**_

_You said: _

_Ok mommy goodnight._

_**Sokka said: **_

_**Night love you.**_

I clicked the X on the IM box and turned off the laptop. Maybe I should get some rest; I have a big day ahead of me with signing up for classes and checking out the rest of the school. It's not _just _the music I'm interested in here. I mean at first I thought I would just stick to that but the more I toured the school the more interested and respect I had for the other arts. Painting looked fun but I was never the best at drawing. Maybe dancing. Of course not I have two left feet. I'll figure something out. The light on my iPod flashed on and I put my ear plugs on. Music seems to relax me and help me fall asleep faster; it's always been the case.

**XXX**

"Kataraaaa" That voice was loud enough to seep through my ear plugs, but I pretended not to hear it. I felt the presser in my ear vanish as my roommate pulled the ear plug out.

"Katara!" I screamed and jolted out of bed. She didn't have to scream in my ear!

"I'm up I'm up." My finger was in my ear trying to settle the rattling going on in there.

"We're gonna be late sleepy head, don't you wanna get there early to sign up for classes?" Ty Lee was and has always been a good friend of mine. We went to elementary school together until her parents transferred her to some all girls' school. We missed each other so much, until we were old enough to get a facebook account and we found each other years later. She told me she was going here to UFA for dance and I was so excited to hear. I had been accepted on full scholarship. I still don't know how she managed to share a room with me but I don't really care as long as we're together.

I rubbed my head as I flung the covers from my body getting out of bed. Ty Lee clapped cheerfully and ran to her mirror to fix her bed head. I dressed in a loose beige colored tank top with a dark green skirt that hung loose to my mid thigh and a pair of grey leggings. I put my glasses on, you know for reading, and slid on my dark green flats. Brushing my hair back and quickly brushing my teeth I was ready for the day; and after all that Ty Lee was _still _fixing her hair.

"Come on slow poke we have to get there early remember?" She turned to me and frowned.

"I can't decide up? Or down?" The troubled teen demonstrated the different styles for me. I told her itdidn't matter and she got mad. I sighed. Sometimes I wonder about my friend. Finally after those five whole minutes we were headed towards the school part of campus.

"We should get breakfast. I'm starving." Ty Lee said. I agreed and followed her to the 'cafeteria'. There we spotted Toph. It was my first time meeting her yesterday, but apparently she had gone to school with Ty Lee one year at the all girls school. It took me a while to believe that she was actually blind but after being yelled at by her I quickly gave in.

"Hey Toph." Ty Lee gave her a big grin.

"So do you live here or something?" I asked. I had seen her a lot during the day yesterday and today she was back again munching on a muffin in the cafeteria.

"Mo." She said with her mouth full. She swallowed and continued. "But my parents think they do." She put her feet up on the table and took another bite. Ty Lee and I sat down in front of her.

"So what are you guys doing up so early?"

"We're gonna sign up for classes. You wanna come with us?" Ty Lee asked seeming even more excited about the idea.

"No thanks." She stuffed the rest of the muffin in her mouth. "I'm just gonna roam the school, you know what I do best. Maybe I'll go annoy the guys a bit." Suddenly her closed eyes opened and her feet were off the table and on the floor. "Speaking of guys, I ran into Zuko yesterday." I almost fell out of my chair from the gust of wind that Ty Lee blew up with her standing from her seat.

'Zuko's here?" She squealed I haven't seen him since, well, last year actually."

"Who's Zuko?" I asked feeling left out. The girls turned to look at me.

"He's a friend of ours." They said simultaneously. Wow, I didn't know the world was _this_ small. It's all one big circle. They explained how Toph knew him when she was little and Ty Lee went to middle and high school with him. Plus Toph went to the same elementary school as Ty Lee. So Toph knew him first then met Ty Lee and Ty Lee met him later. But Toph knew his sister and Ty Lee was friends with his sister who also went to elementary school with them… what did I just say? Well you get it they all know each other.

Ty Lee and I had a quick breakfast then ran off to the classes. We stopped at the dancing studio first where met some of the other ballerinas. They were all really nice and encouraged Ty Lee to sign up for ALL the extra classes that had to do with dance. Something about it'll help her frame or something like that I don't really speak dance. The upperclassmen even tried to get _me_ to sign up. So I gave them a no thank you and tried to get out off there before Ty Lee bragged me into doing something I _really_ didn't want to do.

After that little episode we looked around the art classes. I was really into the comic book art. There had been plenty of times I would take Sokka's comic books and hide with them before he found put they were gone. I even tried to copy some of the pictures in them but I didn't turn out so great. Once Sokka took his books back he hid them so I couldn't get to them; I never found them actually. Looking at the sign up list I noticed a beginner's class for only a few weeks. This sort of class just gave you a taste of what being a comic book artist was all about, so I wrote my name down on the list. I was pretty excited about this one.

I turned around to find Ty Lee and head to the music wing when _WHAM! _I bumped into, no, collided into someone. I covered my throbbing nose in pain and looked up at who I knocked into. He had almost _golden_ eyes with black hair which dangled in front of his eyes and pale skin. He was holding onto his chin which I guess was what my nose hit.

"Sorry." I said still holding onto my nose.

"ZUKO!" The stranger and I turned to see Ty Lee running up. She almost tackled this guy to the ground. She was giving him one of her 'I've missed you so much it's been so long' hugs and boy were those painful; trust me I know.

"Who's the lady?" I looked at another boy who walked up with a questioning look on his face.

"Ty," Zuko tried to gasp for air. "Lee. To. Tight. Teo. Help." Her eyes widened and she pulled back and laughed.

"Sorry." My arm was suddenly pulled by the excited girl.

"Katara _this_ is Zuko." He smiled and grabbed my free hand for a shake.

"Sorry about your-

He stopped mid sentence and looked deep into my eyes and stopped shaking. My eyebrow went up in confusion.

"You're the girl! The cello player I saw last night." Now it was my turn to widen my eyes and let go of his hand.

"You were the guy chasing me last night?" I pointed at him with the hand that was covering my nose.

"Last night?" Ty Lee and Teo asked. Zuko gasped.

"You're bleeding." Huh? I looked down at my hand. Man that was some hit. I moaned and grabbed my nose again. Ty Lee ran off somewhere and yelled 'I'll be back with napkins!'

"What were you doing watching me last night?"

"What were you doing in the concert hall?"

"Don't question me? Answer my question!"

"You answer mine!"

"I asked first!" That shut him up. He crossed his arms.

"Fine I liked your music so I thought I'd stick around and listen."

"You did?" I backed off a little.

"Yeah it was, nice." I smiled to myself.

"Now answer mine. What were you doing there in the first place?"

"I needed some time to my self that's all. Why were you chasing me?"

"I wanted to know who you were." We started at each other for a while now until Ty Lee came back with the napkins. I wiped my nose and left the scene walking towards the music wing of the school. Ty Lee followed quickly and shouted bye to Zuko. Signing up for the music classes was easy. I had already looked up all these classes online and had already picked out the ones I wanted. On our way out we saw Zuko and Teo walk our way.

"So you're following us now?" I asked Zuko. His buddy Teo stepped in and said,

"We're not following you. Maybe you're following us." Everyone looked at him. "What?"

"We're not following you we were just, uh, interested in joining a music club. Right Teo?"

"I don't want to join-

Zuko jabbed him in the side and Teo quickly changed his words.

"I mean…yeah." I frowned at them and grabbed Ty Lee's arm as she waved bye, walked around them and headed out the door.

**Thanks for reading. Review! :D**


End file.
